The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-25
STAGE rrt,NDER.
Some OF the Devices Employed for
Producing II by Prominent Actors.

| lom the roof of the theater through
an inclined trough which ended in n
funnel. In this funnel projected nu-
merous bristlc wooden "proIiles, or
pegs. When the heavy iron ball came
Numbering down this funnel, crashing
and breaking the wood, it sounded as
if the house was tumbling, Thunder
made Forrest warm up TO his work,
especially as King Lear, II play in
which the boys kept the balls rolling
very lively during the tn rd act. Oficn-
bach made Calchas shake n thin sheet
of iron, in imitation Of Jup ter Olympus,
and that way of making thunder is
used now in south Europe The Saxon
idea of thunder which mythology tells
10 was made BY Thor throwing his
hammer from Wahala and finally
striking something. brought different
sounds TO the ear than that shaken out
! from sheet of tin or iron. And the
! final thud and crash is made now in
Germany by the rafting OF tin first and
the break ne of Il thin pine board by Il
cobblcstone hurled by the scene-shilicr,
The late Mr.. T.. l.. Davenport once
said that the finest thunder he had
( heard was one of these gentlemen tum-
bling down a very rickety STAIR and
breaking each step MS he bounced down
ward. Booth does not care much how
his thunder is manufactured, but he
likes it best when it grumblcs in the far
distance on bass drum, ending with
one or two mighty pealS of sharp,
cracking noises at prec Sc points in his
business. Keene. on the contrary likes
it sharp, loud, and plenty of it.
Nine. Janauschek likes her thunder
done in the flies by n ball rolling from
wing TO wing gently, and at times the
prompter raltles a long piece of sheet
iron, with Il handle, two or three times
right at the audience. This, the ma
dame thinks, gives the effect of II storm,
which comes on, and finally breaks
over her The prompter with prompt
book in one hand, shaking the thunder
sheet in the other, is usually the only
funny thing in madamcs performance.
The trouble with storm lingering or
numbling thunder is that it sounds
more like an express wagon driving
over a very bad pavement. Mr. W. ii.
Gillette uses Il gentle thunder to imi-
tate a coming carriage, and has a stone
whercon one Gf the boys beats n gallop
with "A steel horseshoe. Charles Fcch-
ter finally adopted the Foster rumbling
and final crash. When he fell through
stage trap, some years before he
died, and hurt himself severely, il is
said he thought the noise he made was
an excellent article of thunder, but
doubted if he could get substitute.
He was very much liked by the stage
hands wherever he went, and putting
up" kcg of beer for them was not a
very unusual occurrence.
When Lewis Morr son brought out his
Ut Nut
ter, he used all the known ways of raising
thunder in the Walpurgis yacht scene.
More than hundred supcrs were hired
to rattle tin sheets from all conceived.
bic places. Charlotte Cushman cared
nothing for the quality of her thunder,
but she wanted the quantity as bolster
Gus as she could get it, and wished the
thundermakers to pause at each thun-
r-clap in Meg Merr,l e" just long
enough for her to say her lines She
didn't care for much lightning.
At the Lyceum thcater thunder is
MADE by rolling a stone bowlGer down
a trough, in the bottom of which are
nailed strips of wood. In the storm
gathered in Met 10y Chance this
thunder was very effective, accompan-
led as it was by lighting. Several
glass tubes through which ran n wire
were stretched across the stage in zig
Gags and the electric flash sent through
which could be seen through the trans
parent glass. and the effect was made
more striking yet by throw ng u light,
obscured by dark, threatening clouds
painted on the glass; this was rejected
on the drop, and gave the background
the appearance of a moving mass
rain-laden clouds. In "Fhc Brook
the salisbury Troubadours heighien
the effect by perforated wat,r-pipe in
the flies, through which the water
,,,.,,t-lod ON tba staye but tho thun.